CERN in the classroom: cloud chambers

CERN in the classroom:cloud chambers

Elementarya collaboration:

http://CERNandScotland.tumblr.com

SEPnet

Particle Physics: the ‘building blocks’

–70ºC

+12ºCisopropyl alcohol (volatile)

falls in high temperature gradient

layer of supersaturatedvapour forms

Cloud chamberinvented 1911 by Scottish physicist CTR Wilson

–70ºC

+12ºC

high-energy particle goes through

–70ºC

+12ºC

strips electrons from gasmolecules as it passes

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++

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–

–

–70ºC

+12ºC

ions nucleate liquid drops in the supersaturated gas

–70ºC

+12ºC

the droplets reflect light and we can see the particle’s track

Safety!1. isopropyl alcohol2. dry ice

positron1933

After the atom: a new particle 1933

Physical Review 54 (6) 491–494 (1933)

The discovery of the antiproton and other antimatter, 1955-59

Glasgow electron microscope Stanford linear accelerator (1960)

Stanford linear accelerator (1960)

Controlled environment and higher energies: accelerators

The Large Hadron Collider

The ATLAS experiment– reconstruct particle tracks

From cloud chambers to Higgs at the LHC

http://CERNandScotland.tumblr.com